FINA temporarily suspends Mexico swim federation

LOS ANGELES: Swimming’s world governing body FINA announced on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at its bureau meeting in Budapest that it had temporarily suspended the Mexican federation over Guadalajara’s withdrawal as host of the 2017 World Championships.

It was not immediately clear how FINA’s action would affect Mexican swimmers’ hopes of competing in the Rio Olympics this year.

“In accordance with FINA Rule C 12.1.1, FINA temporarily suspended the Mexican Swimming Federation for not fulfilling contractual obligations concerning the cancellation of the 2017 FINA World Championships in Guadalajara,” the governing body said in a statement.

In other business on Saturday, FINA announced it had hired the firm of top sporting official Francois Carrard “to assess and review FINA corporate governance and, based on this assessment and review, to provide, if needed, recommendations for improving the corporate governance policies, processes and structures of FINA.”

That move is to comply with the International Olympic Committee’s Declaration on Good Governance in Sport, FINA said.

Carrard, a Swiss lawyer and former director-general of the IOC, is also leading the reform committee of corruption-hit world football body FIFA.